I write this article to juxtapose certain national developments with readings into the character of Rodrigo Duterte, our president.
I do not claim affinity as to be able to speak with any authority about the person; in fact, I write this after recent conversations with friends who were in the Duterte campaign as well, and with erudite observers, both Filipino and foreign.
While reading the latest internet editions of Manila papers here in Taipei, I suddenly recalled what my Jesuit-trained English professor in college would keep quoting, an oration in the Roman Senate by the famous Cicero, leveled against fellow senator Luius Sergius Catilina, who was supposed to have conspired with revolutionaries (unsuccessfully) to overthrow the institution of the Senate itself.
“Quo usque tandem abutere, Catalina, patientia nostra?”
The Latin words are still in my memory bank, and they translate: “When, Catilina, will you cease abusing our patience?”
Further, Cicero asked: “How long is that madness of yours still to mock us?”
Condoling with the bereaved families of slain soldiers ambushed by NPA guerillas, President Duterte declared that the ceasefire with the leftist rebels was over, and later called off the ongoing peace talks with their negotiating panel. There was also an unpublicized though shocking incident which occurred in late January where the Pico de Loro resort owned by the Henry Sy family in Nasugbu was raided by a band of NPA guerillas who disarmed the guards and carted off equipment and vehicles.
In the President’s mind, the left had abused his patience and disdained by such actions the olive branch he offered in the pursuit of a lasting peace.
May hangganan ang pasyensya, may katapusan ang pagmamagandang loob, as our forefathers would say.
To show his sincerity, he caused the release from prison of some of their top leaders, including the spouses Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, so that the parleys could begin well. And earlier, he appointed prominent members of the re-affirmist left to his Cabinet.
Then this dastardly attack against his soldiers happened, killing a lieutenant just freshly graduated from the Academy, something that surely struck deep into the hearts of the military establishment. This happened right after the NPA’s Mindanao command headed by Jorge Madlos unilaterally declared that the ceasefire was over.
(As this is written, the Standard reports a statement from Luis Jalandoni, fired from his cushy digs in the Netherlands, speculating that “the military may have killed their soldiers to lay the blame on the NPA”. That’s adding insult to injury.)
And so the President first told the military: pare bellum. Prepare for war. Then a day or two later, he declared the NPA terrorists and ordered the cancellation of the passports of those he had earlier released from prison and who were now part of the negotiating team whose talks are held in Europe at great expense to the Filipino taxpayer.
To paraphrase Cicero, how long would we allow this madness to mock us?
And further, when will they cease abusing the patience of Duterte?
He has walked more miles than any president before him to achieve peace, from offering a change in the form of government in order to settle the long-held grievances of our Muslim brothers. He has opened his cabinet to members of the left, something never done by his predecessors but for a few token appointments here and there. Now this.
Yet foreign and local observers, while saying that the President has a short fuse when it comes to crime and corruption, also admire the person’s innate humility. He quickly apologizes when he realizes he made a mistake. Hubris does not become the man, unlike others who preceded him.
When he accused the Pangasinan governor of involvement in the hated drug trade and found out later that the accusation was without basis, he offered his apologies, without thought of personal face.
When the Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo was found to have been killed by police officers and right inside Camp Crame, not only did he order immediate investigations, or revamp the unit involved by a few criminal miscreants, he apologized publicly, later on sending his legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, to Seoul to convey the profundity of the nation’s condolences.
A Caucasian businessman who has lived in the country for two decades, compared the Duterte apology with how the previous president would not dignify with personal and public apology the massacre of several Hong Kong tourists in August of 2010. These were committed by katzenjammer cops on the hallowed grounds of the Luneta.
“Very human, truly humble,” the businessman told this writer, while dismissing his predecessor as “inappropriately stubborn.”
The same Caucasian friend recalled too how PNoy went to a car assembler’s plant inauguration instead of meeting the cadavers of the Fallen 44 of Mamasapano when the plane carrying their mortal remains landed at the airport named after his martyred father.
And compared it to how Duterte solicitously visits wounded soldiers and commisserates with the grieving families of those who died in combat against enemies of the state.
True leaders are made of steely resolve, sharp minds and probably, most importantly, big hearts.
The steely resolve gets tested when patience is abused and when large goals need to be implemented to confront national ills. The big heart is saddened by tragedy, touched beyond words by human suffering.
There are limits to the leader’s patience, but his humility will be without any.